Dr. No

Bond came to film life out of the sixth novel titled Dr. No, after nearly a decade of Ian Fleming trying to get his novels made into motion pictures.  A Canadian producer, Harry Saltzman, obtained the rights to make the novels into films.  Even Harry had nearly given up until he found American producer Albert R. Broccoli who was both interested and financed the work through United Artists.  Financing was not great at only one million dollars but it was enough to get the film made.  Dr. No was not the producers first choice for a film, as Thunderball had more potential, but the tropical location of Dr. No could allow an action film to be made within the budget that was provided.

The greatest dilemma facing the producers was who could play the role of James Bond, Bond’s girl, and the villain Dr. No.  Thoughts of Richard Burton or Cary Grant were considered for the lead role.  They decided to take a chance on Sean Connery, a new young actor with a Scottish background.  Terence Young, the director, who was known for his style and elegance in film- making, quickly used his skill to provide Connery a more sophisticated image.  The role of Honey Ryder was quickly chosen as Ursula Andress who was a Swiss Beauty.  The villain turned out to be the hardest selection.  Ian Fleming recommended his friend and playwright Noel Coward but the answer from Noel was “Dr. No is No! No! No!”   A trained actor from New York was chosen for the role, Joseph Wiseman.  Once selection of the cast was complete, filming began in Jamaica in January 1962 without delay.

After location filming was completed, studio production moved back to England.  Imaginative sets were produced and the result was a very polished film elevated above the standard of thriller movies of the period.  The final piece of the film remained in the development of the music.  The film was lucky to have composer Monty Norman on site in Jamaica during the filming.  Monty worked with Byron Lee to bring a real Caribbean feel to the musical score.   A discarded song from the musical version of the novel The House of Mr. Biswas was transformed into the James Bond Theme through the use of a driving modern electric guitar version of the tune created by John Barry.  This theme song ended up being used extensively by the film editor Peter Hunt to make the song integral to the film.

Albert Broccoli had faith in the film.  He took a somewhat meager budget and turned the Ian Fleming novel into a production of value on the screen with high technical standards.  Dr. No was completed by October 1962 where it was released in England successfully under the United Artist banner.  In April 1963, Bond was introduced to American theatres where it had an excellent run with the new spy hero.  Albert Broccoli started with Dr.No to create high budget, award winning Bond films for the next thirty three years until his passing.  Now his daughter Barbara Broccoli, who was born just before the production of Dr. No, carries on the Bond film dynasty for her family.

M is for Master or Mother?

M is the head of the British Secret Service.  Even though the service has been known as MI7 and MI6, this service has importance for Britain on the world stage.  M has been developed as a leader similar to Churchill but with naval efficiency and organization.  M seems to fulfill the role of a stern parent to Bond, almost acting as a replacement to Bond’s dead parents.  M expects both his staff and agents to be ready when duty calls.  M may be tough and rough on the outside but he has solid judgment.  He understands Bond’s unique skills and extreme talents but has to tolerate Bond’s unorthodox methods and worldly lifestyle.  M is very loyal to his 00 field agents and treats Bond as his top agent.

M’s novel character was developed by Ian Fleming out of several figures from his past.  M may have a tough exterior but he does have a softer side with a love for painting.  M is a pipe smoker and a member of the British gentlemen clubs and remains a dedicated bachelor.   M is a combination of Rear Admiral John H. Godfrey who was Fleming’s own commanding officer in Naval Intelligence during WWII, and Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming who was the head of the Secret Service.  Sir Mansfield likes to sign documents with a single letter.  Mansfield used “C” for himself so Fleming started addressing letters to his own mother with the letter “M.”  M’s real name was indicated in the last Bond novel as Sir Miles Messervy KCMG.

The first eleven motion pictures kept M very close to the vision of Ian Fleming.  He mentions in Dr. No that he has helped drop the number of 00 deaths in the field.  Even though M is a male in the earlier films, M becomes a female in Golden Eye which has one of the best descriptions of Bond as a “sexist, dinosaur, a relic of the Cold War” which indicates that she will be looking at transforming Bond.  This new M is Oxford educated, married and has older children.  Just as M has transformed, she helps to relaunch Bond into the 21^st century.  M is now a symbol of normality missing in Bond’s life. She is the professional symbol of MI6 with the moto that “regret is unprofessional.”

The female version of M ends her role tragically in Skyfall.  After so much work helping to guide Bond into the new century, M finds herself in trouble after losing a hard drive with all the names of Nato secret agents working inside global terrorist organizations.  M makes Eve Moneypenny take a high risk shot, hitting and presumably killing Bond.  Acting professional to the end, she is asked to step down a few months later.  After a direct attack at MI6 headquarters, the healed Bond returns to M.  M has to break the rules, looking the other way to get Bond declared fit for active service.   M and Bond return to Bond’s childhood home of Skyfall to battle villain Silva to the end.  During the battle, M uses Bond’s Walther PPK but misses the shot getting wounded.   She has a final one on one dealing with Silva where she is fatally wounded in a chapel on the estate.  Bond ends up killing Silva and has a chance to hold M in his arms as she dies.  The final words of M were “at least I got one thing right.” This may refer to her role in helping Bond’s transformation into an agent worthy of the new century.   After M’s tragic death, a new M arrives as a controlling (but also very supportive to field agents) character named Gareth Mallory.  Bond will always remember his mother M through her bequeath of her repaired Royal Doulton Union Jack British Bulldog which always rested on her desk when she was M.

Bond’s True Love?

James Bond has only had one true love that we know about.  He met his true love during the early part of his career.  Bond found true love in the most complicated and emotionally devoted girl who worked for the British Government.  Her name was Vesper Lynd which could be a play on words for a “viper who lied” which should have been a warning to Bond’s sense of danger.  Vesper was initially put off by Bond’s arrogance only to fall deeply in love with Bond after he was tortured by the villain Le Chiffre.  In the background there remained many hidden past secrets in her relationship with Bond.  Ultimately it will be her complex background complete with blackmail and another lover’s life at stake which will result in her own death.  She may have died to end the burden of her guilt from her complex life or perhaps it was out of true love to protect Bond from haunts from her past life which she knew would never go away.  It is through tragic love that Bond finds his inner sense of purpose in life to devote his life to MI6 and his country as the greatest secret agent the world would ever know. 

In the novels, Ian Fleming has Vesper working for Section S of the British Secret Service which is devoted to the Soviet Union.  She has a lover from the Polish Freedom Fighters but he has been in Soviet custody since the end of World War II.  She is blackmailed into providing key intelligence to the Soviets to keep her long lost lover alive.  It is her guilt about the death of her lover and the suffering Bond has with Le Chiffre which results in a burden she cannot handle and she kills herself with sleeping pills.  Bond is heartbroken and he vows to go after the threat behind the spies. 

In the motion picture version, unlike the novel version, Vesper’s character and Bond’s love of Vesper are developed only to end tragically.  Vesper officially works for the British government where she is an International Liaison Officer for the Financial Action Task Force of Her Majesty’s Treasury.  Her experience is with illicit banking practices and has been sent to ensure that government funds used to finance Bond in a high-stakes poker game with the Bond villain Le Chiffre are frugally used.  She even denied funds to Bond when he over played his hand and Bond’s long-time friend Felix Leiter had to come to Bond’s rescue to provide the required funds to stay in the game.  Vesper meets Bond at a point in her life where she is venerable, still wearing an Algerian love known necklace which was a gift from her French – Algerian lover.  She is an orphan, just like Bond.   However in her case, this tragedy was committed by her father killing her mother and then himself in a murder/suicide.   Unknown to Bond, Vesper has been blackmailed and tricked into working for Mr. White for two reasons.  She was led to believe that her lover was kidnapped through Mr. White’s terrorist network that will only save her lover’s life by her cooperation with Mr. White.  Secondly, she made a deal to save Bond from death by Le Chiffre’s torture by promising to return the winnings from the high stakes poker game to Mr. White through his associate Gettler.  Although Vesper never completes the blackmail transaction, she cannot continue to live knowing what she almost did.  Bond’s love for Vesper was so great that he resigned from his life-long love: MI6 only to return after he discovers her deception and gets to watch her die through self-inflicted drowning in a locked Venetian elevator cage in front of Bond.  In this version you can almost personally feel the pain in Bond’s heart and understand why he represses love into love of work.

As in any tragic love story, this story ends with a purpose.  Even though Bond lost his one true love under very emotional and tense circumstances, he recovered with an internal drive and sense of purpose.  Bond is scared for life on the inside and his heart which was opened but for a short time is now shut permanently.  The sense of pain Bond felt is shown in his famous quote to M that “the bitch is dead.”   Bond now has the ability to rise to any challenge and take on any foe with winning being the only outcome for Bond.  Perhaps the greatest secret agent is still devoted to his only true love and doesn’t care if he dies knowing that he will meet her again in heaven.

Bond’s Good and Faithful Friend Felix Leiter

James Bond does not seem to have any friends, just enemies, except for one person.  That person is Felix Leiter who could be considered a true friend to Bond.  Felix is portrayed in the novels as a man of about 35 years of age with boyish looks and straw coloured hair.  Felix originally worked for the CIA until he was discharged due to injuries he acquired though the actions of a villain.  He was attacked by a shark and permanently lost part of his arm and leg on one side of his body.  He continued his role as a spy working for Pinkerton’s Detective Agency for only a short time until he was called back to work by the CIA Chief as both a DEA and CIA Field Agent.  He is a true American, born in Texas and an ex-member of the US Marines.  Felix is known for his love of jazz music and likes to go out with Bond for a “boys night out” having a meal while barhopping.   On one occasion, Felix even left his own wedding to help Bond.  Felix also is Bond’s most reliable and trusted aid in the field showing up just when Bond needs a friend in the most dangerous situations in order to stay alive.

Felix is a character in six of the original Ian Fleming novels but has gone beyond the novels and has appeared in eight of the motion pictures.  He changes appearance quite drastically from picture to picture with only a few exceptions of appearing looking the same with the same Bond actor in the most recent films.  Felix has been played by various well known actors over the years starting with Jack Lord, Cec Linder, Rik Van Nutter, Norman Burton, David Heison, John Terry, and most recently Jeffrey Wright.  Felix is an agent who will likely continue to show up in future Bond films.

Felix lives at the highest level of danger in the world of spies.  He has lost part of his right arm and leg to sharks through a confrontation with villains not once but twice always being found by Bond wrapped up in a sheet with a note attached to his chest which reads, “He disagreed with something that ate him.”  This handicap may have allowed Felix to leave the spy world but he continued to stay in the world he knew best.  Felix was the one who injured Scaramanga in Jamaica to allow Bond enough advantage to terminate this deadly assassin.  Felix even arrived once with the Marines to rescue Bond.  Whenever Bond is in America, Felix is the one who watches over him and ensures that transportation is waiting.  In fact, Felix was even called upon to get Bond to the President of the United States for a personal thank you.

In the latest Bond films, Felix has developed into a more complex role with more information being provided about why they are such close friends.  At their first meeting in Casino Royale, Felix is the one who gave Bond the $5 million needed to stay in the poker game after Bond’s own treasury officer refused to provide the required funds.  As true friends care for each other, Bond allowed the CIA to apprehend the villain Le Chiffre once Bond was finished cleaning the villain out of cash to allow Felix to look good as a field agent.  In Quantum of Solace, a handicapped more mature version of Felix appears working under CIA South American Section Chief Gregory Beam.  At this point, Leiter challenged the CIA’s involvement with the villain Dominic Greene.    Beam was involved with Leiter in a trap to kill Bond, but the sign of their true long friendship was shown as Leiter tipped off Bond to what was happening at great risk to his own life and career going against his Section Chief’s government orders.  Leiter disappeared at this point and Bond only finds out through M that his friend lived to become a CIA Section Chief of South America replacing the corrupt Beam who was removed from office.   Leiter now is positioned in an even more powerful position to help his friend in the future.

Vehicles of Bond: Aston Martin DB5

The Aston Martin DB5 was the most popular and famous of all of Bond’s movie cars.  It strongly identified and was visually associated with Bond.  The car’s battleship grey colour complemented the elegant style, futuristic sleek design and innovative gadgets that made it special.  As part of Bond’s cover, the Aston Martin DB5 provided Bond with an image of a young adventurous man with good taste for fast things and success in life.   It was a rare car during its limited production run of 1,023 vehicles from 1963 to 1965.  This secret agent’s car was made to perfectly fit the needs of James Bond. 

The Aston Martin DB5 was originally going to belong to Q, who was Bond’s gadget man, as he needed a replacement car for his aging Bentley.  The car was filled with gadgetry which Q was famous for designing.  There were about seventeen known gadgets initially installed in the car and three more were added later on.  Some features included extending front and rear ramming bumpers for safety.  A secret drawer was also installed under the driver’s seat which was a one man arsenal containing a 7.63 mm Mauser, Armalite rifle, silencers and telescopic sights, a throwing knife and a hand grenade.  In addition, the front driver’s door contained a radio telephone.  An unseen homer receiver with a range of 150 miles based on radar technology was contained in the racing mirror so Q could track the location of the car at all times.  There was a moving map system behind the radio speaker grill which foreshadowed what is known as GPS maps today.  All the windows were bullet proof and there was a heavier armament screen that could be deployed behind the rear window for extra protection.  Even the license plates revolved to allow registration in Britain, France or Switzerland.  A caltrop dispenser was located behind the driver’s rear lights and this made it possible to damage the tires of enemy vehicles following too closely.  The passenger rear wheel hub also had an extendable tire knife.  Another feature was that smoke could be ejected from the tailpipe to create a smoke screen.  The passenger side rear lights contained an oil dispenser to make the road slick behind the vehicle on demand.  Wing machine guns were mounted behind the indicator lights at the front.  The Aston Martin DB5 was the first car fitted with a passenger ejection seat.  Later modifications included water cannons, a Champaign cooler, and a home office printer/fax/communicator which was installed as part of the upgraded CD radio.  Bond discovered the car by chance during a visit to Q’s lab and talked Q into letting him use the car.  Even with all the offense weapons, Q added many protective and safety features to the car making it a unique secret agent car for Bond.

Much of the gadgetry of this car ended up becoming standard equipment on today’s production cars.  For example, the moving map system found on Bond’s DB5, has evolved three decades later in our vehicles, as the commercial GPS system we use in cars today.  The internal cooler for a wine bottle now shows up as available fridges in many CUV’s.  The radio telephone found in the driver’s door is now the Blue Tooth radio link to driver cell phones for hands free communication.  Many of the safety features of the car were actually more advanced than safety features of that time in cars of the 1960’s.  Improvement in safety features to resemble Bond’s car became standard on new cars within a decade.  Perhaps the other features of this car have made it to the cars of secret services around the world.

This car showed up in seven Bond films during 48 years.  Sadly, the Aston Martin DB5 ended up being destroyed along with Bond’s childhood home in the movie Skyfall in 2012, but not before using its front firing machine gun to save Bond’s life by taking out a number of men trying to kill Bond.  The remaining models of this car are now the most well-known and sought after Aston Martin ever made.   This car defines the Aston Martin brand.  Even Ford, who once owned Aston Martin, adopted the front grill look in the current Ford Fusion to help sell this model of car.   The Aston Martin itself has become just as famous as its owner James Bond.

Skyfall

The sky almost fell on a nearly completed Skyfall film before it was completed.  The twenty-third Bond film was written by screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Peter Morgan in November 2009.  Faced with bankruptcy the film was stalled, not from lack of popularity but from lack of funding support because MGM Studios which was the co-owner of the franchise was on the brink of bankruptcy.  Sony Pictures came to the rescue in 2010 as MGM emerged from bankruptcy.  Support from Sony Pictures allowed the film to bring on Sam Mendes as the director.  Sam decided that the script needed to be rewritten and invited John Logan to revise the script as an opportunity to make major changes.  Moneypenny was reintroduced as a field agent with a larger part in the plot and her name “Eve” was introduced.  Q was reintroduced as a young and more technology advanced inventor who was up to date and current with the information age.  The villain was also reintroduced into the character of Raoul Sousa seeking direct revenge on Bond for betraying him years earlier.  This film would provide the ultimate climax at Bond’s Scottish ancestral home named Skyfall which fit well into the fiftieth anniversary of the film series.
 

The location of this film was at Pinewood Studios in London.  The pre-titles sequence was performed by the lead actors Daniel Craig and Ola Rapace who were performing many of the stunts in a fast action sequence filmed on location in Turkey on a moving train above a 300 foot drop.  Both Pinewood’s Paddock Tank and 007’s stage were used for the variety of scenes from the waterfront Macau Casino, the “Dead City”, to the London underground.  Even the film’s climax was produced at Pinewood and Longcross studios with background provided by Hankley Common.  Emotions ran very high on the sets at the studio during M’s death scene as Judi Dench climaxed her role of acting in seven Bond films over 17 years.  This film truly proved that a major motion picture could still be produced within a studio setting where time and money constraints of the project could be controlled to keep the nervous backers at Sony pictures happy.

Sam Mendes brought 25 years of directing theatre and film experience to the Bond film.  This Bond film was in good hands with a very experienced director.  Mendes brought in Thomas Newman to write the musical score.  Daniel Craig was assigned the role of Bond without question, back for his third film, with a desire to make a “Bond film with a capital B.”  This picture required a title song and Mendes asked Adele to be the artist to create the song.  Singer-songwriter Adele and producer Paul Epworth worked together and introduced the title song “Skyfall” to the world on James Bond Day, celebrating the golden anniversary of the Bond films.  This title song went on to win Best Original Song at the 85^th Academy Awards.  Director Sam Mendes put his full set of skills into producing an extended two and a half hour Bond film which was nominated for many awards, taking many prizes in the cinematography and music categories.

From the near bankruptcy, Skyfall became the highest-grossing film in the UK in 2012 and the highest-grossing film for Sony Pictures.  This film continued its legacy with Bond working for the British Crown under MI5.  There was even a segment shot with Daniel Craig and Queen Elizabeth II for the 2012 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony in London providing a grand entrance for the monarch celebrating her diamond jubilee year during the Olympics as well as advertizing to the world the upcoming release of the film.  Skyfall also earned a Royal Premiere at Royal Albert Hall on October 23, 2012.  This film also introduced a Bond non-Imax film to the large Imax theatre screens as the film series looked forward to a continued future with the support of Sony Pictures.  Perhaps this was an indication that the next Bond film will be funded for the more expensive Imax production.

Lotus

The Lotus car company made two significant appearances in the Bond films.  Lotus cars represent excellence of British hand built cars from Hethel, UK.  Starting up as a small automotive manufacturer after World War II, Lotus continued to produce a product of passion, individuality, fun, and gritty determination to a small segment of the market on a continuous basis for eight generations.  The company moto is “simplify, then add lightness” as quoted from the company founder Colin Chapman from his “lightweight laboratory” at the heart of the business.  Lotus cars have the least amount of parts designed into them so they are as light as possible to make them fast everywhere, not just in thought but practice.  Lotus is also Q’s choice of car company to work along side.  Lotus cars are perfect for the type of work Bond requires his vehicles to perform in when tense situations arise.

Bond appeared with a supercar in the wedge shaped Esprit S1.  On its own, this was one of the greatest small cars ever built.  Q took the car and modified it to carry an arsenal of weapons.  He continued to provide a full underwater conversion system to make the car into the first “subphibian” which allowed the car to be a submarine.  All of Q’s invented gadgetry did not take away from the Esprit’s super car performance.  In the film “The Spy Who Loved Me,” the Lotus Esprit appears on the island of Sardinia in Bond’s joint mission with Major Anya Amasova of the KGB as they investigate the shipping tycoon Karl Stomberg.  This car was built under strict security at the Q branch, yet Amasova knew all the abilities of the car as she had stolen the plans a few years earlier.  This supercar car was used successfully in Bond missions.

Many new gadgets were added to the Lotus car.  The first gadget to appear was the cement sprayer concealed under the rear license plate to obscure the pursuing car’s windshield.  The next new invention was converting the car into a submarine when needed.  For example, in one film the car drove into the sea because it was trying to avoid a helicopter shooting at it, the car converted into a submarine.  The submarine conversion included tires folding and exchanging for rudders and fins emerging to fill the wheel wells and propellers deploying from the rear bumper.  Louvers descended over the windows to cut glare from the surface of the water while a periscope rose from the roof to complete the transformation from underwater car to full submarine.  Video cameras and digital readouts were part of the dashboard.   There was even a targeting screen on the centre console and the gearshift was redeployed to aim and fire sea-to-air missiles.  The steering wheel’s controls were used to fire front mounted torpedoes.  The headlight switch was used to deploy an ink cloud from the rear of the car to hide its existence just as an octopus would.  There was even an underwater mine which could be released with the hazard light switch.  Even after obtaining damage during an underwater battle, the car was able to emerge from the water and safely deliver its occupants onto a beach.  Q really outdid himself with this conversion of a super car which is now on exhibition at the Design Centre in London.

The awesome Esprit Turbo was launched in tremendous style at London’s Royal Albert Hall.  This car was to become even more famous as the second Lotus to be featured in a Bond film.  This was a super car for a super spy as the car’s performance took it straight into the supercar league with the ability to go faster than 150 mph in 15 seconds while still having the ability to perform a 0-60 mph in 5.5 seconds all with a 2.2 litre Lotus engine.  The audience never got to see the gadgets in this car in “For Your Eyes Only” as it self-destructed in huge explosion after a thug smashed one of the windows.  Thankfully, a second car was used to show the ability of the turbo on the road.  Perhaps in the future, another Lotus will appear as it was very well received as a car suitable for Bond and meeting the standards of Q.